The rally was mindboggling and out of nowhere.
Tarik Skubal was on cruise control through six innings-plus and had a 7-0 lead. The biggest question seemed to be would the Tigers pull him early to get an in-inning reception coming off the mound in what might be his final start them, rather that wait until he closed out the seventh. Once he left the game and the Orioles got into a bad bullpen they went to work – it’s their calling card – and a ridiculous comeback ensued.
Baltimore tied it at 7, leaving a runner on third, and then went up 9-7 with Jackson Holliday, having a wonderful July, coming off the bench for another big hit, only for Rico Garcia to allow Detroit to tie it on a first-pitch homer in the 11th. Then, finally, four hours in Colton Cowser, 24 games without an RBI and just inserted into the game in extra innings, delivered a two-out, two-strike hit off a lefty for what ended up the game-winning margin in a 10-9 victory at Comerica Park.
“Those boys in that clubhouse are a resilient bunch,” rookie skipper Craig Albernaz said, noting that a lot of the damage Wesnesday was self-inflicted. “They take punches and keep going.”
It was nuts, the Orioles continued to do unserious things in the field and on the basepaths, and ended up becoming just the second team in MLB to overcome a seven-run deficit in the seventh inning or later this season and pulled off the franchise’s biggest comeback win in 17 years. They hung starter Trevor Rogers out in what could have been his last start for his current employer, too, but overcame it all in the end.
None of it would have happened if they couldn’t get Skubal off the mound, and he extended his personal shutout streak against Baltimore to 31 2/3 innings before that happened. He wasn’t laboring and barely had to throw the ball to get through the sixth, but in the 7th Coby Mayo – who mashes lefties and had great at bats against arguably the best lefty of them all Tues – walked with two outs and Gunnar Henderson on.
Leody Taveras, who was terrible in the outfield again but is always in the middle of any crazy rallies they muster, drove in the first run, snapping a 15-inning scoring slump with a base hit and reliver Kyle Finnegan took over. Finnegan didn’t fool anybody and his control stunk.
He walked Jeremiah Jackson, which isn’t easy, to load the bases and red-hot Jackson Holliday entered as a punch hitter and plated two with a single to right. Taylor Ward, a nothingburger with men on base all season, cut it to 7-5 with a single to right, before Pete Alonso’s pop-up ended the inning.
The Tigers couldn’t convert against reliever Anthony Nunez despite a one-out triple and the Orioles competed the comeback in the 8th. Henderson drew a lead-off walk (he was in a 2-for-25 stretch prior to that earlier single), second-baseman Gleyber Torres tried to get the lead out in a double play and ended up getting nothing with Dylan Beavers reaching at first. And Mayo crushed a ball to dead center that just stayed in this cavernous ballpark for a triple.
Taveras and just-recalled catcher Yohel Pozo couldn’t bring him, so on we went. Henderson allowed himself to get doubled off as the zombie runner in the 10th, which felt ominous, but Tyler Wells needed just 12 pitches to get six outs including a double play with first and third and one out in the 10th.
Pozo came through with a sac fly for a go-ahead run in the 11th – Taveras’s expert sac bunt helped, too – and Holliday singled for a two-run lead. 9-7. Garcia’s first pitch ended that with Spencer Torkelson’s blast clearing the bullpen in left (scoring the Zombie runner too), and then, finally, Cowser’s gutsy at bat ended the scoring.
“It was a lot going on,” Albernaz said. “It was a great team win.”
Detroit ran off a stretch of 21 straight runs in this series with the Orioles not ready for this day game after a night game.
They gave up four more unearned runs – they are running away with the MLB lead there – and played like a Little League team with no fundamental understanding of baseball because their coaching staff if so pathetically out of its depth they are making Brandon Hyde look like Early Weaver. Pete Alonso threw a ball away on a rundown at first and Henderson still doesn’t know how to get a lead runner and he fed the onslaught with a terrible throw too and Taveras gave away at least three bases in centerfield and the third baseman just recalled from AAA (Christian Encarnacion-Strand) made two great plays but had a painful error.
“One of the crazier games I’ve ever been a part of,” Rogers told the media after the game. “We really needed that game.”
It’s was gong show and it’s been a gong show since June of 2024 and it undermined any chance for Rogers to compete in what should be the last start for him as an Oriole with an expiring contract. His nine-game run of brilliance was snapped, but the defense utterly and completely undermined him.
He should be gone by next Monday along with many others, but Rogers doesn’t want to consider that now.
“If it does happen, I gave this organization everything I had,” Rogers said. “But I’m hoping that’s not the case.”
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